After the end of World War II, Aéronavale had only two small aircraft carriers: Dixmude, which was loaned by the Americans, and Arromanches, which had been leased from the British, but planned to lay down its own larger PA-28 design in 1947.

The aircraft had to exceed a speed of 900 km/h (559 mph) at all altitudes, have a climb rate in excess of 25 m/s (82 ft/s) at sea level, and an armament of three 30-millimeter (1.2 in) autocannon with the possibility of carrying bombs or unguided air-to-ground rockets.

The flight demonstrated that the wind-tunnel testing of the prototype's novel control surfaces had been grossly inadequate as the spoilers and compensators were almost entirely useless and it was still only marginally stable laterally.

The test pilot found the aircraft almost impossible to turn, but was able to land at Brétigny-sur-Orge Air Base after eight minutes of flight only because it was almost straight ahead from Melun Villaroche.

SNCAN considered terminating the program after the flight, flying its own competitor for the requirement, but it was awarded a contract by Aéronavale later that year to continue development.

The following day the NC 1080 entered a spin at an altitude of 3,000 m (9,800 ft), had its anti-spin parachute torn away, and crashed, killing the pilot, Pierre Gallay.

Without another prototype available to continue development, the program was cancelled and a license-built version of the British de Havilland Sea Venom was ultimately selected to satisfy Aéronavale's requirement.